Book Cover Screensavers are Underrated

One thing I appreciate about Kobo ereaders is the fact that they show the cover of the book that you’re currently reading on the screen when the device is in sleep mode or turned off.

I don’t know why showing book covers on the sleep screen isn’t a common feature across all ereaders. It makes the experience more book-like when you set down an ereader with a nice detailed book cover on it, and it entices you to pick it back up to start reading again when you see the cover of a good book you’re reading.

Of course it doesn’t matter much if your ereader is in a case all the time with the front cover closed, but otherwise it’s a nice feature to have.

Most ebook readers just show some logo or random image on the screen when the device is sleeping.

Kindle screensavers are the worst. You get advertisements unless you pay $20 extra, and even then you just end up with a collection of random pictures that have nothing to do with reading ebooks.

People have been hacking their Kindles for many years just to be able to customize the screensavers.

Is it so much to ask to simply display the cover of the book you’re currently reading when in sleep mode?

It seems like that should be common sense, but instead we’re stuck looking at pictures of pen caps and the bottom of unsharpened pencils. That’s if you’re not getting ads for romance novels…

I whole heartedly agree as well. This is a feature I absolutely love on my Aura One & would be nice on other ereaders. It was a disappointment to see Amazon didn’t bother updating the images they use on the screensavers. Before my Oasis 2 I had a 5 year old paperwhite, before that a kindle keyboard & ever since I’ve had a kindle they’ve had the same images. Seems like something that’s never even crossed their minds of changing. A shame, they should take a page from Kobo on that. I agree with the comment that it’s more book like then when they are the screensaver, plus some covers are just awesome!

Yes! For me, enjoying a book’s cover is an important part of the experience of reading. And it is diminished by the presence of unrelated stock images or ads. Amazon is already criticized for being an evil corporate empire, and ads on their devices doesn’t help shed that image.

Your link to Kindle hacking is from 2012 and, sadly, it’s way out of date.

It’s sad because Amazon has declared war on those who’re trying to fix their hideous firmware to allow for things Kobo users take for granted: User-added fonts, automatic collections-tagging via Calibre and the ability to add KoReader to the Kindle.

Each time a jail-break & hack is released to fix these issues, Amazon releases an update which breaks it. It’s a battle which has been going on for years (and years) and you’d think that Amazon would maybe add these features themselves but so far, nope. They’d rather just declare war on their users

Hacking to remove ads without paying for it? That’s minor since Amazon itself (reportedly) will do it for free if you ask nicely.

Overdrive on Kobo Aura One not working in UK for library’s? It seems UK as on mass gone over to Borrow Box Why? Have Kobo who own Overdrive asked to much. Sorry to post here but could not see any coments about this.

Not sure what you’re referring to. On the product page for the Kobo Aura One is says, “available throughout most public libraries in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand”.

For most e-readers the book cover feature is configurable. On my Sony PRS-T1 you even have the option of showing a photo that you download to the device, like maybe a photo of your family — or whatever you want.

Because the feature is configurable if you don’t like the feature then you don’t have to use it.

@Alpha: Yes !
Obviously you’all are not reading erotica, Each time I have visitors I have to change my screensaver on my mac, and now I should also change the book I am reading? No, what I miss was the rooted Kindle / Sony Screensaver with self-selected pictures.

Totally agree with you, I have a Kobo Aura One and the current reading picture plus his form factor made this ereader very nice and personal, when is in sleep mode and you take him to continue a reading

I’ve been emailing Bezos and Amazon about this for years. I have a jailbroken Kindle Voyage, so I can get the book covers as my screensaver, but I have not upgraded to the Oasis (any model) because of this issue (they’re not presently jailbreakable). My e-reader of choice is now the Kobo Forma. Amazon is losing sales and book purchasers because of this policy — which they’ve never bothered to explain. Heck, I would pay $20 for the ability to use my book covers as screen savers.

Old thread this but still cooking. Just upgraded from PW3 to Oasis 3 and boy am I missing the screensaver hack and Calibre collections+series already!
At least, font_ramp and the update.partial.bin thingie (to prevent Kindle from updatinng FW) are still working. Will have to sit it out on stock FW (albeit it being responsible for the good amount of ghosting imo) until the good people at mobileread find a way to jailbreak 🙁
Why, Amazon?

Wish that Amazon would introduce this feature… ;-(
It is incredibly annoying never seeing the book cover of the book that you are reading, and the screensaver would have been the perfect place to show it!

There is simply no question that the option to have the cover of the book you’re reading as an option is e-reader 101. The fact that Kindles lack this feature is because Amazon believes doing so would negatively impact their ability to make money. There can be no other reason. They probably want to change the book reading experience from the traditional as much as possible so that the digital sector has fewer and fewer associations with print books. Think about it. The margins on digital products must be huge compared to physical counterparts. Basically Amazon is a supremely arrogant corporation and when I replace my e reader it will not be with another Kindle. Then I won’t have to buy anything from those bastards ever again.